The Udmurts are a people who speak the Udmurt language. Throughout history they have been known in Russian as Chud Otyatskaya (чудь отяцкая), Otyaks, Wotyaks or Votyaks (most-known[citation needed] name), and in Tatar as Ar.

There have been claims that they are the "most red-headed" people in the world.[5] The long-extinct Budini tribesmen, said to have been precursors of the modern Udmurts,[6] were described as being predominantly red-headed by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus.[7]

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The name Udmurt probably comes from *odo-mort 'meadow people,' where the first part represents the Permic root *od(o) 'meadow, glade, turf, greenery' (related to the Finnish word itää 'to germinate, sprout'), and the second part murt means 'person' (cf. Komimort, Marimari), an early borrowing from an Iranian language (such as Scythian): *mertā or *martiya 'person, man' (cf. Urdu/Persian mard). This is supported by a document dated 1557, in which the Udmurts are referred to as lugovye lyudi 'meadow people', alongside the traditional Russian name otyaki .[8]

On the other hand, in the Russian tradition, the name 'meadow people' refers to the inhabitants of the left bank of river in general. Recently, the most relevant is the version of V. V. Napolskikh and S. K. Belykh. They suppose that ethnonym was borrowed from the Iranian entirely: *anta-marta 'resident of outskirts, border zone' (cf. Antes) → Proto-Permic *odə-mort → Udmurtudmurt.[9]

The Udmurts have a national epic called Dorvyzhy. Their national musical instruments include the krez zither (similar to the Russian gusli) and a pipe-like wind instrument called the chipchirghan.[10]

A chapter in the French Description de toutes les nations de l'empire de Russie from 1776 is devoted to the description of the Wotyak people.[11]James George Frazer also mentions a rite performed by the people rites in his book The Golden Bough.[12]